If you’ve followed us closely at all in the past, you’ll know that we have a serious issue with how wines are rated by the Wine Enthusiast, and all the snobbery and politics involved in getting a wine rated by a “respected” connoisseur.  SuppleWine has a “value grade” they use to give wine grades, which ranks wine on a similar letter grade scale as is used in school.. E.g. A+ is excellent, F means drink a beer instead.

I’ve been on an XKCD kick lately, so the geek in me loved this recent comic.

Courtesy of SuppleWine.com

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Going Green Reaches Economic Tipping Point at Wine and Shine 2009

Serious implications for vineyards! A few wineries in Cali are supposedly powering their operation from the sun, courtesy of solar installation and financing company, Conergy.

Being a sustainabilty company that started with wine, we’re loving the vibe. Wine and vineyards represent the essence of sustainability. Talk to any great winemaker and they’ll tell you they consider themselves part of the process, equal to the sun, the rain, the soil. And that cooperation rather than control is what leads to the magic of wine… we feel it when we taste it. That’s how this going green thing really tips… when people start feeling their connection to the world and to each other. Awareness that we evolved from the earth and we’re here to be part of nature. There’s a deep zen like quality to all of this, seeing a mountain and feeling one with it, equal to it. Part of the same field. Some say “ok, lets be hippies and live in cabins in the woods.” No, that’s not it. To the contrary its this awakening that will inspire us to create the incredible technologies and systems we need to power and renew the world. It’s already happening though. It’s simply our awareness of it that will create a coalescence.

Connectivity, health, and now renewable energy? Vineyards are going to be the power stations and spiritual centers of both human energy and electricity. You feel it?

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It’s all starting. The environmentalists have so much energy and knowledge, and now they have the all-important swagger. The surety within that they’ve been longing for to go to the politicians and have their way with them. They’re going to get what they want because as the planet heals, the (eco)nomy will heal, and people will heal. Disease will dissipate, spirit will be connected, and cashflow will become circular. Capitalism will die and ecolism will be concentrically born through the power of each person’s advocacy.

Something that excites me more than anything is the youth of the world. The interconnected spiritual nature that we all feel… the connection to each other and the connection to our world. The essence of the millennial generation.

Take a look at all the involvement and care that school sustainability programs are advocating. Every little clean up, recycling, or education program is huge now that everybody feels the impact. The critical mass needed to clean up the mess and make real change is here… for the human effort to surpass the industrial decay. The next few years are going to be unprecedented in global awareness, connectedness, debate, warfare, and ultimate renewal. We are going to reach the brink, the vesica piscis as I like to say, and then we’re going to bloom.  Thank you to everyone who has worked hard for so many years to help bring about environmental awareness.

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The problem?.. curl was not enabled by default in Xampp.  You receive the following error:

• Fatal error: Call to undefined function curl_init() in C:\xampp\htdocs\tayst\twitter\index.php on line 4

The solution?  These simple steps!

Step 1. Stop all Xampp services: Apache, Mysql, Filezilla, and Mercury.

Step 2. Open the following files in your editor of choice. (Replace C:\xampp with the location of your xampp install)

• C:\xampp\apache\bin\php.ini
• C:\xampp\php\php.ini
• C:\xampp\php\php5.ini
• C:\xampp\php\php4\php.ini
• C:\xampp\php\php4\php4.ini

Step 3. Find the following code in each of the files, and remove the ; (semicolon) at the beginning of the line. You will most likely see it at line 546 or line 582.

• old line – ;extension=php_curl.dll
• new line – extension=php_curl.dll

Step 4. Start your apache services.

See what an easy fix to curl on xampp by simply removing a few semicolons.  Happy Coding!

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Today, I found this video by Ilana Yahav demonstrating her work – “Let’s Get Together”.   This is a dynamic “painting” using sand as a medium.  Reminds me of my creative “struggles” with the etch-a-sketch when I was a kid.  The coolest thing about this, is that unlike painting, or drawing, this is a very eco-friendly / sustainable art form.

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There can be no doubt that we are seeing a transition at the moment – and I’m not talking about from capitalism to socialism, but rather something less tangible and equally pervasive. This change, I think, is from an age of objects into an age of ideas. Be it an iPod, a Blackberry or an iPhone, we as a society have come to depend on our objects, but the trend toward ‘one box solutions’ and centralising our PDAs, mobile phones, e-mail and music devices shows a longing to free ourselves of the objects, devices, countless power cables and the increasingly cluttered assortment of gadgetry churned out over the years. The inevitable movement towards cloud computing shows the urge of our society to become less dependent on material objects in favour of something more powerful and less immediately tangible. It is in this very transition from physical to ideological that we can see the beginnings of a permanent change.

The definition of an idea most relevant here is: a process of cognition fed by information that leads to a conclusion, which goes on to influences either our opinion or a course of action. We hold ideas above all else. The next time you look at a £10 note you will see the Queen of England, a living monarch on one side and on the other is Darwin, long since deceased and yet still going on to influence the world and appear on currency from beyond the grave. This is the ultimate testament to the power of ideas: where genius and ideology trump royalty. But before we categorise our current time as one defined by ideas – perhaps we need to step back once and look at the raw material behind ideas: information. More than ever in our history, as a society we deal with information, statistics and data on a daily basis. One has to only look at how Wikipedia expands, as it is constantly changed, added to, subtracted from and altered – to see a living, organic, expanding model of information. What is notable about our current time is the simultaneous multiplicity of ideas – and the fuel behind this all is information.

In Digital media we have first-mover advantage in dealing with an age of information, and are all lucky to have begun to work in creative ways in trying to understand and interpret the enormous amount of data that we receive. We have also realised that our biggest challenge doesn’t only lie in increased complexity, but also in the sheer quantity of information we have access to. For anyone who has tried to condense an ad-segmentation report into a single conclusion, or looked at trying to de-duplicate display impressions from SEM clicks will know – we face the challenges set out by an age of information on a daily basis, with the majority of our time being spent re-purposing data in order to make actionable business decisions. As marketers, we know that we cannot simply segment our market in terms of the objects they choose, leaders they follow or ideas they embrace, as these monochromatic measures are outdated. If you really want to understand today’s consumer, you must first look at the information they have access to and the way they use and interact with it.

No doubt this leaves us in a world of complexity. However if there is one thing we know about the world it’s that things rarely, if ever, get less complex. A perfect example of this is IP.6. At current most IP addresses are IP.4 – and we’re beginning to run out. When the infrastructure of the internet was first laid out it was inconceivable that we would need more than 10 addresses each – but we have pushed the boundaries by assigning IP’s to our iPhones, laptops, home computers, work computers, Xbox 360s and PSPs – and such has been the uptake and rate of adoption that we’ve needed to move to IP.6 – which basically allows every single human being to have as many internet addresses as there are currently internet addresses.

A saying we have adopted at Unique Digital is ‘the future is already here, it just hasn’t been distributed evenly’ and for a glimpse at what IP.6 and the future may look like, we only have to look at cows in Japan, which are amongst the first users of IP.6. which may not be as obscure as it sounds, because if you think about it, as digital marketers one of the first things we do in the morning is get a snapshot of the previous day’ activities. All of our future plans are based on trends of what has happened before. Much as we might look at click-paths or the previous days’ conversions, Japanese farmers are able to access information about their livestock remotely at any time of day. They are able to study the impact of weather, grazing patterns and land usage – and cross-tabulate such information to deduce whether they need more land or more livestock for the following year.

Already this may challenge our current assumptions – if search engines organise the world’s information… in a world of IP.6 will also organise livestock? Suddenly Eric Schmidt’s claim from last year that Google’s next focus will be the energy sector seems far less outlandish. We will all begin to get our first taste of IP.6 this year when it comes standard in electrical appliances – and we will find that our new kettles, toasters, microwaves and fridges will come equipped with their own data feed into the world wide web. Does this mean then that search engines and the algorithms that power them will not only give access to information on click through rates and agriculture… but energy grids and energy efficiency too?

What age are we in? As marketers with unprecedented access to an ever increasing amount of information, we are in constant search of answers most of our working day. In a discussion over lunch, James, our associate MD reminded me of the part in Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy book Life, the Universe and Everything, where we come across a group of scientists who are obsessed with looking for ‘The Great Answer of Life.’ The quest for this answer has consumed them to point of not being able to contemplate anything else. However, after years of searching they are mortified to find that the answer is 42. 42! What they realise is that in their obsessions with finding the answer, they had forgotten the actual question. And though answers are useful, without an accompanying question they are quite useless. I think therein lies an important lesson for marketers within the age of information… if we want answers, we first need to take a step back – and understand the questions.

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I’ve been working with an amazing company here in Philadelphia called SEER Interactive and it hit me last week in our company wide meeting sitting around the whole office together with 11 women and 3 men. It was one of the best meetings I’ve ever been a part of. Not only was it relaxed, humorous, and productive, more so than most meetings I’ve attended, but I left with an overwhelming sense of peace… something I’ve never felt before in endless male dominated board, class, and conference rooms.

Sometimes I tend to feel that women possess the essence of the universe and men are simply expendable, thus the reason why man created religion and has scoured the earth with linear wasteful supply chains and chaotic ways of capitalistic thinking, because we are not in rhythm with the universe like women are. So instead we stomp around and kick up dust trying to feel what women do naturally… the connection.

There are so many problems with the world, and the reasoning could be infinite. I argue it is because of a simple disconnect between men and women, mainly in man’s lack of understanding of the enlightenment that women provide. It is the woman who is in rhythm with the world, the seasons, and the lunar cycles. They feel it, they don’t think it, they don’t have to. And they inspire men thru this feeling to create, to build… to fulfill our destiny. Everything that a man does, when taken down to its fundamental element is for a woman, the love of a woman. A man that does not love women, that does not cherish women and surround himself with strong women, cannot be enlightened… cannot create.

My personal enlightenment to all, to god, came from one thing… my love for the women in my life. There is no reason to get lost in the details and ideals. Everything is very simple. I think I’m starting to get it now.

I love women!!

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By and large this is a question that does not usually elicit an interesting response. However in the world of news-reporting – digital media often covers the essential how, who, when and where questions of journalism, because our communication mediums are increasingly location aware, user-specific and time stamped. What is a question that requires actual human input – and in the past 3 years people have been answering it in terms of Facebook status updates, and for the early adopters – by joining the twitterverse.

Yesterday, however, the answer to that burning question reached critical mass and took on historic significance. Whilst some protested and others wondered about what was going on outside their office walls, multi-tasking employees were able to get on with their work whilst receiving a blow by blow account of history unfolding. It has been overstated to the point of cliché that the medium is the message – but yesterday the message made a medium and Twitter found its place in the global setting. Beyond the news-helicopters, simple tweets turned digital enthusiasts into citizen journalists and for once, a multitude of opinions on the same subject were heard. Suddenly all the hype made sense – some of us had tweeted previously to moderate effect, but for most of us not concerned about letting the world into our daily happenings, Twitter just left us scratching our heads.

The power of Twitter is its ability to allow multiple voices to communicate disparate opinions in unison. Of course, its fantastic to be in the loop of the wonderful world of Stephen Fry via twitter – but what we saw yesterday was not celebrity admiration, but rather the changing documentation of history, where instead of being written by the victors, we captured a glimpse through the eyes of the observer – raw, unfiltered and uncesorable. We have seen dictatorships stifle freedom of expression in blogs and websites – but the immediacy of Twitter gives the voice on the individual more resonance than before.

Of course history in the making needn’t be people tweeting from Hurricane Katrina or Tiananmen Square – we all have histories, cultural histories and personal histories. A father tweeting the anxiety of being in the waiting room whilst his child his being born, a techy tweeting the anticipation at a tech-conference whilst waiting for Steve Jobs to unleash Apple’s new toy, or a Machester United fan tweeting from the stands during half-time with the score at 1-1. Every generation alters the way it communicates, and it seems that those alterations are happening more frequently. In 6 years we have gone from long-form e-mail, to group e-mails, to text message, on to Facebook and finally: Twitter.

Of course Twitter has its critics, and there are those who see it as a distraction and a detraction from complete discourse. But so often when our collective brains are abuzz with thought, instead of thinking in full sentences or having complete thoughts, our minds are aflutter with neural tweets.

Could Twitter be the closest we have come to reflecting how our society collectively thinks, sees and experiences the world?

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The LOHAS market in total represents $209 billion in consumer sales!

Personal Health: $118.03 billion

• Natural organic products
• Nutritional products
• Integrative health care
• Dietary supplements
• Mind body spirit products

Green Building: $50 billion

• Home Certification
• EnergyStar appliances
• Sustainable flooring
• Renewable energy systems (solar)
• Wood alternatives

Eco Tourism: $24.17 billion

• Eco-tourism travel
• Eco-adventure travel

Natural Lifestyles: $10.6 billion

• Indoor & outdoor furnishings
• Organic cleaning supplies
• Compact fluorescent/LED lights
• Social change philanthropy
• Apparel

Alternative Transportation: $6.12 billion

• Hybrid vehicles
• Biodiesel fuel
• Carsharing programs (pickup pal)

Alternative Energy: $300 million

• Renewable energy credits
• Green pricing

Biggest Market Growth:

• Retail Sales +28%
• Organic foods +15%
• Solar energy +20%
• Eco-tourism +23%

*Information provided courtesy of Lohas.com

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You can also sign out of google’s personal web search program in your account settings.   Even if you do not use the search wiki to vote results up or down, google does appear to be trending and custom tailoring results based upon your traffic patterns.  In doing SEO, it is important to know that the results you are looking at are not biased.

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